STR-01: The Scorched Lands

[Strauss]

Ok, I played my turns. Not particularly great, but good enough.

A summary:

-We have produced our first 2 Keshiks, with two more nearing completion.
-Turfan has been founded on Yellow Dot, currently building an Obelisk to get cows inside the radius.
-Our economy sucks even more than it did when I started my turnset. However, with Pottery researched and Cottages under construction, I think the future is looking bright.
-We've surpassed Hatty in score and are not far behind on Mansa.
-Egypt has a city next to Beshbalik, two Keshiks already underway to take it out.

Our empire in 550 BC


Thoughts:
We should raze the Egyptian city neighbouring Beshbalik and then send our force of Keshiks southward to the mainland.
As for infrastructure, we should concentrate on getting up some Cottages to get us out of this economic hole.

Another thought: Should we perhaps play 15 turns each? As this is Epic, 10 turns might be a bit too little to make an impact.

 

[Strauss]

Roster:
1) Strauss -> just played
2) Ralph_Jackson -> UP to teach Hatty the Way of the Mongol
3) Pvblivs -> on deck
4) blastoidstalker
5) Kanga_DU

 

[blastoidstalker]

Great turns Guys
Kudos to Kanga for keeping our lands intact, and Strauss for getting us ready for war.
A bit of razing and pillaging should go a long way to fixing our economy as well
A couple of questions for Strauss
What is our military niumbers now and where are they? I think you are right in that it is time to kick some Egypian eyeshadow
Was your tech progression finish Pottery start writting?


A couple of ideas
raze that closest cities for funds soon, do not feel afraid to pillage anything that we will not use immediately (which with our economy hampering expansion probably means pillage everything)

We have not heard from any other civ's so we may very well be on a continent with only Hatty and Mansa (who is to the north???). This would be very good as then (as long as Mansa is to the north, we can raze Hatty's cities without the worrry of another empire just encorperating it.

Rember to use the axemen in our city razing as keshiks are better at pillaging and fighting in the open. If we promote the Keshiks with flanking they can do a good job at softening up the enemy, we must just be prepared to lose some.

Question
Where to attack first?

 

[Kanga_DU]

I dun forgot to highlight I'd left an axe fortified overlooking Thebes. It was in the turn notes, but I'd wanted to specifically mention. Hope you'd found him Strauss.

And 15 turns each sounds a good idea to me.

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

Not looking bad at all from what little I can see, will look at the game Tonight and post plan / questions as I can only see the high level map when I am at work and will the Play / Report on Saturday.

If we don't have enough Military to Wipe Hattie out I think I see two (Kanga?) cities north of the Peninsula her capital is on. It would be nice to pin her down into that peninsula for future Tech extortion purposes prior to extermination.

 

[blastoidstalker]

There have to be two cities up there. One 4-5 squares east of beshabalik and one 10+ squares. the closer one was not there when I played but I guess is the settler that I saw in her capital (it is on one of the screenies I posted). The close one can not be that old.
If I am right from the posts we should have 2 soon to be 4 keshiks about 4 axeman and some archers.

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

Look at the save and not too many questions

1. Tile assignment humblingly perfect
2. Military, how much, just enough to take down Hattie's 2 northern cities. with 6 Archers in her capital it looks a tougher nut to crack.
3. Pillaging opprtunities. negligble . looks like soembody beat me to it

Builds

Turfan needs a border pop so will get an Obelisk next so it can eventually rain in the fishes.



Now playing

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

So plan is simple, take out Hattie’s 2 northern cities and prepare the assault on her capital.

Turn 1

In classical AI combat move, two of Hatties 6 archers come out of her capital to attack our Axe and promptly lose. Additionally our archer camped near Hattie’s capital also takes out an archer

Keshiks sent off to the first of Hatties northern cities.

Turn 2,3

Turn 4 Keshiks take Hattie city (which as its nice I keep)… only kidding!

Turfan finishes a Keshik and as our Military is looking good moves onto an Obelisk, It will need a border pop although we need to research before we can build a workboat.

Turn 5

Move axe away from Thebes 1 square to see if I can tempt an Archer out. (AI with a lot of defenders will move some out if it doesn’t feel that threatened.)

Turn 6

Barb Archer defeated in Ning-Hsia and now notice an Axe is following , this could be tight. Take Garrison Promotion to help it survive. Our brave Archer in Ning defeats the axe another Archer is despatched to the Garrison as that was too tight.


Turn 7

Take Hattie’s second city

Our brave Archer in Ning defeats the axe another Archer is despatched to the Garrison as that was too tight.

Turn 8

The axes alone will just bounce off Hattie’s archers due to 60% culture in her city so Keshiks sent to reinforce. Next Player gets to take down Thebes. It’s a cracking site with 4 food specials!!!!

Turn 9-10

Troops assembled near Thebes, tempting out troops has worked as it is now down to 3 Archers with no reinforcements in the vicinity.

End of Turn

Enough troops near Thebes to take it down with a few losses (3 Keshiks, 2 Axes, 1 Archer) though the Keshiks are still healing. Most troops have unused promotions which we could burn to accelerate healing (we have 1 Medic 1 Keshik already) but though I would be polite and let next player decide.

Our economy sucks!!

This is what the world looks like

And with detailed squinting we can see where Mansa is in the NW

Kill count for the 10 turns

Lost 1 Keshik Killed 13 Archers and 1 Axe (we do love the )

Spoiler :

Turn 130 (550 BC)
Axeman defeats (4.45/5): Egyptian Archer
Axeman defeats (3.90/5): Egyptian Archer

Turn 131 (535 BC)
Axeman promoted: City Raider I

Turn 132 (520 BC)
Karakorum finishes: Keshik
Beshbalik finishes: Keshik
Turfan finishes: Keshik
Archer defeats (2.61/3): Egyptian Archer

Turn 133 (505 BC)
Karakorum begins: Keshik
Beshbalik begins: Granary
Turfan begins: Obelisk
Keshik defeats (1.68/6): Egyptian Archer
Archer promoted: Cover
Keshik defeats (6.00/6): Egyptian Archer
Captured Elephantine (Hatshepsut)
Razed Elephantine
Elephantine lost

Turn 134 (490 BC)
Axeman defeats (0.20/5): Egyptian Archer
Archer defeats (2.16/3): Barbarian Archer

Turn 135 (475 BC)
Archer promoted: City Garrison I
Keshik defeats (6.00/6): Egyptian Archer
Keshik promoted: Medic I
Turfan grows: 4

Turn 136 (460 BC)
Keshik promoted: Combat II
Keshik defeats (2.76/6): Egyptian Archer
Axeman promoted: City Raider I
Keshik defeats (0.90/6): Egyptian Archer
Karakorum grows: 5
Ning-hsia finishes: Worker

Turn 137 (445 BC)
Ning-hsia begins: Archer
Keshik defeats (3.96/6): Egyptian Archer
Keshik promoted: Combat I
Keshik defeats (1.68/6): Egyptian Archer
Captured Heliopolis (Hatshepsut)
Razed Heliopolis
Heliopolis lost
Archer defeats (3.00/3): Barbarian Axeman

Turn 138 (430 BC)
Keshik promoted: Combat I
Keshik promoted: Combat II
Keshik loses to: Egyptian Archer (0.84/3)
Keshik defeats (5.34/6): Egyptian Archer
Turfan finishes: Obelisk
Old Sarai finishes: Obelisk

Turn 139 (415 BC)
Turfan begins: Keshik
Old Sarai begins: Barracks
Karakorum finishes: Keshik
Beshbalik finishes: Granary

Turn 140 (400 BC)
Karakorum begins: Keshik
Beshbalik begins: Keshik
Karakorum begins: Granary

 

[Strauss]

Great set of turns Ralph! Hatty should be eliminated by Pvblivs.

One remark though: why is our research still set to 30% with 121 gold in the treasury and the looting from Thebes waiting for us? I don't have the time to look at the save (I have to get up at 4 AM tomorrow for a 24-hour trip to Paris) but I think we could shave some turns off Writing.

Roster:
1) Strauss
2) Ralph_Jackson -> just played
3) Pvblivs -> UP to finish off Egypt and burn Thebes to the ground!
4) blastoidstalker -> on deck
5) Kanga_DU

 

[Ralph_Jackson]

The bulk of the funds came from Hattie's last city and must admit I was umming and arring about how quick we wanted to finish the research and as we can always go to 100% for a few turns decided I didn't need to decide!

Ralph

 

[blastoidstalker]

Great job Ralph, you have put Hatty on the verge of extinction with almost no losses, good use of troups, quickly razing the cities without taking undue risks.

I took a look at the save game to see in a little more of where we are at. It looks like we can get writting in 10 turns which would be great as libraries can help us a bunch now. I would think about IW after that so we can unlock the power of that northern city, then push for monarchy, code of laws or alphabet.
There are three keshiks marching towards Thebes. In order to crack that city I would suggest giving the unpromoted one flanking 1 and 2. Flanking 1 is not that great but flanking 2 gets you a 50% withdraw rate and immunity to first strikes. this would make the unit a good first attack piece, it will only have about a 20-30% chance of winning but will have a good chance to withdraw and will gain expierence if it does. Even if it does die it will soften up an archer enough for another unit to take him out. I like giving mounted units flanking 1 and 2 in the early game and find it more usefull than the basic strength promotions (though 25% vs mele is very usefull as well when an oponent has spearmen or pikemen).

we also may ge the oportunity to whipe Hinduism from the board. Though it would be usefull for it to spread to our lands (for culture) it seems more in character to squash it under the hooves of our horses.

 

[Pvblivs]

Hey guys. Great advancement here. Yesterday in favour of TAM I completely forgot about you where I could have played

I can hardly (I'd try if nobody else does) come onto this before Wendesday (then for sure). blastoidstalker can swap with me if he likes.

Blastoid: You have to burn Thebes. 1st of all we can not afford another city at all. Where should the money come from to maintain it? Second pink dot is THE choice for the next city site. This is a site with lots of food and production AND specialists. So we may crank some great scientists or so out of this city site. And third and final you have to. Look at the variant rules

Ralph Jackson ... you made my heart stop when you said "hey, nice site! we keep it!"

I would favour CoL as next research option above all others. Even if it is researched, courthouses are yet to be built in every later town. This will assure us the economy for our next expansion phase. Then IW, Mathematics and Currency. All other due to our aggressive strategy seems not good for us...

 

[blastoidstalker]

I can switch and take it next.
I am up in my SGOTM as well, I will try to get both done tommorow, tuesday at latest.

PBLIVS- I never intend to spread hindu or declare it as state religon. I was just amused that if it spread to us it could remove the need for an obelisk in some cities. Better that we quash it before it can infiltrate us .

Once Hatty is finished I want to get a coulle of units up to scout Mansa and also would like to keep him from the sites of the northern egyptian ruins. I intend to pillage the horses up there so Mansa can not gain easy acess to them.

If I get to another settler I will settle it on the pink, though I do not know if I will get to that point.

 

[Pvblivs]

Could you please inform the thread when you actually start to play. If you don't play it can actually happen that I have the time. And if you didn't start this evening I may still grab it and play if my girl friend allows me to

Though I think it's very unlikely as I played TAM yesterday evening until 2 am

 

[Pvblivs]

Ok guys. I've got time this evening to get into this as fortunately a friend of my girlfriend celebrates her

I can play this evening and will inform you that I do when I start.

 

[blastoidstalker]

Go for it
I haven't touched it

 

[Pvblivs]

Will play now!

 

[Pvblivs]

Pvblivs Avrelivs Khan takes the scepter of all Mongols in 400 BC.

Hatshepsut, the desperate​

Thirty years pass and Hatshepsut, desperate queen of the almost faded Egyptian empire sues for peace. Her ambassador is sent away back with his head in his hands.

The sack of Thebes, the Egyptian capital and Hindu holy city​

In 325 BC Egypt has gone forever and the holy city of the Hindus, Thebes, burns to its ruins.

The art of writing​

Inbetween Mongolian wise men learn how to write. To embrace the coming period of peace the Mongolian scientists are ordered to learn more about the secrets of Meditation.

Estruscans settling where Egypt has faded​

We discover an Etruscan tribe protecting the rich east from being exploitet by our Malinese neighbours. I decide to let the ruins of Thebes be guarded for future settlement of the glorious Mongolian empire.

In 250 BC we discover Meditation. As our economy now suffers from our greatness it will last a little longer than expected to discover Priesthood.

Actually since then, not very much happened during the reign of Pvblivs Avrelivs Khan. He concentrated on stabilizing the rather poor empire through the builds of many Libraries, employing scientists to replace the lack of technology investment due to the always low budgets.
He spelled many great warriors to push back into Mongolian borders not to loose money because of long supply routes. He on the one hand defeated many Barbarians but on the other could not prevent Barbarian tribes to settle in the places where once Egypt had been strong.

When in 100 BC Pvblivs Avrelivs Scriptor died after an overlong life (so at least some military leaders whispered during the last years) the hope has risen now again for the new Khan to lead Mongolia to glory. Can he defeat the Malinese empire to build up Mongolian hegemony on the continent? Will he raze cities to the glory of the Keshiks and to the benefit of the Mongolian treasures? Or will he install a new code of law, allowing Mongolia to expand even faster?

Come now, blastoidstalker Khan, take the scepter and - after these years of stagnation and desperation - lead Mongolia to new glory!

The Scepter of Mongolia

 

[Strauss]

Nicely done Pvblivs. However, you forgot about the "no Pax Mongolia" variant. Perhaps you were confused by the "2 civs met" rule, we do not need to have connections with 2 (living) civs to declare war on them.

It's not a disaster though, however blastoidstalker will need to declare war then

 

[Pvblivs]

Ah, I actually didn't forget about our variant but thought we had to know at least 2 other living empires. So you have my apologies oh great overlord. I hope you will not erase my names from Mongolian history books (now that we know how to write ).

I indeed thought a lot about it but decided to take the peace I thought possible because we did not know any other for the sake of our economy. However we have the military to harress Mansa Musa. And as we ought to, I'm sure blastoid will beserk even more because of his peaceful predecessor